{"id":27422,"date":"2025-10-29T13:28:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27422"},"modified":"2025-10-29T13:28:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:28:26","slug":"new-music-revue-royal-wood-delivers-letter-to-himself-with-dear-john","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2025\/10\/29\/new-music-revue-royal-wood-delivers-letter-to-himself-with-dear-john\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>New Music Revue<\/em>: Royal Wood delivers letter to himself with <em>Dear John<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_27423\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27423\" style=\"width: 298px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RoyalWood_DearJohn_COVER.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-27423\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RoyalWood_DearJohn_COVER-298x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RoyalWood_DearJohn_COVER-298x300.jpeg 298w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RoyalWood_DearJohn_COVER-696x700.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RoyalWood_DearJohn_COVER-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RoyalWood_DearJohn_COVER-768x773.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RoyalWood_DearJohn_COVER.jpeg 1256w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27423\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Royal Wood<br \/>\n<i>Dear John<br \/>\n<\/i>(Cordova Bay Records)<br \/>\n3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p>Toronto-based artist Royal Wood\u2019s ninth album, <i>Dear John<\/i>, marries gritty blues with smooth folky hope reminding me of stomping in spilled beer on sticky tavern floors during my undergrad\u2014a cozy place.<\/p>\n<p><i>Dear John<\/i> is a letter to the artist himself, beginning at \u201cThe End of the Road.\u201d For fans of Bahamas and The Black Keys, this winding journey from ending back to beginning is worthwhile.<\/p>\n<p>The album leans into cyclical patterns where relief takes patience. The resolve of triumphing horns on \u201cA Good Day\u201d feels good because we wade up to it, as \u201cPatience\u201d builds slowly to a crescendo of gospel choir harmonies\u2014two highlights of the album.<\/p>\n<p>Eerie strings and psychedelic organ in \u201cBurn It Down\u201d portray the darkest energy, eventually concluding with sounds of bright dawn: a bell tolls and rooster crows. Themes of getting lost, learning lessons, and eventual renewal weave through the album.<\/p>\n<p>Royal Wood\u2019s lyrics are deeply personal yet strikingly familiar, anchored in themes of love. Repeated exhales on \u201cFever\u201d are sensual while fitting comfortably alongside introspective reflections like \u201cNot Enough.\u201d <i>Dear John<\/i> demonstrates the diversity we come to expect of contemporary pop singer-songwriting.<\/p>\n<p>The final song, \u201cTo Be in Love,\u201d opens with slow organ notes that sound simultaneously like a funeral and a wedding. This union of ending to beginning perfectly captures the embrace of <i>Dear John<\/i>. Raw and poetic, cycling through the seasons of life\u2014this is essential Canadiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Royal Wood Dear John (Cordova Bay Records) 3.5\/5 Toronto-based artist Royal Wood\u2019s ninth album, Dear John, marries gritty blues with smooth folky hope reminding me of stomping in spilled beer on sticky tavern floors during my undergrad\u2014a cozy place. Dear John is a letter to the artist himself, beginning at \u201cThe End of the Road.\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,341],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-october-29-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27424,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422\/revisions\/27424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}